All Posts Tagged With: "public television"
Frontline’s The Choice 2008
I just finished watching Frontline’s special, The Choice 2008, about John McCain and Barack Obama’s ascension to where they are today, and I couldn’t be prouder that my tax dollars went to pay for that kind of show. It goes onto YouTube and iTunes tomorrow so everyone can watch, and I do hope that you will if you didn’t catch it during broadcast. Excellent work by Michael Kirk and team, including producer/reporter Jim Gilmore and co-producer/writer Paul Stekler (an Austinite!).
I’d also add that Michael Rose contributed an excellent review of the film at Documentary.org, The Road to Washington: ‘Frontline’ Dissects The Choice
I wanted to know more about the substance of their political agendas and, in general, the issues and policies that are dominating this campaign.”
Kirk says that’s not the film he set out to make. “Most the films I make are kind of character-driven narratives. I know everyone always says that, but I really believe in that, and that method has its limitations, which I’ll freely admit. One of them, it’s really hard to stop in the midst of telling a story about a character and say, Let’s do a little investigative section right there and really smack him for having done this or not having done that.”
Kirk agrees that providing this level of detail and context is one of the ways the Internet can work in concert with a broadcast. Read the entire review>>
The show reaffirmed my own choice, but also reminded me that John McCain deserves my respect. I disagree with many of his choices, including how he is running his campaign, but he has served our country in war and in Congress for the better part of his life. I can disagree with his approach, but it is unfair to doubt his sincerity or his commitment to our country.
Emmys for POV Docs
No stranger to the Emmys, POV announced six nominations for films in the series. From the press release:
P.O.V., public television’s premier showcase for independent point-of-view films, has received six nominations in the 29th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The nominees were announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Michael Apted’s 49 UP was nominated for Outstanding Interview; Ralph Arlyck’s Following Sean received two nominations, for Best Documentary and for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Writing; and three P.O.V. films were nominated for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story – Long Form: Libby, Montana; Made in L.A.; and Rain in a Dry Land. PBS led the pack this year with 38 nominations, more than any other broadcast or cable network.
Other nominees in the Best Documentary category: Operation Homecoming by Richard Robbins, Two Hands by Nathaniel Kahn, What Remains: The Life & Work of Sally Mann by Steven Cantor, To Die in Jerusalem by Hilla Medalia, Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life by Robert Levi and The Killer Within by Macky Alston.
Congrats to all, but special warm fuzzies to my friends Macky Alston, Doug Hawes-Davies, Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar. I love when good things happen to great people!
POV 2008 Season Announced
Summer is almost upon us and that means the excellent POV series on public television. I have mentioned POV a lot in the two years I have been writing this blog because the programming is excellent, they pay their filmmakers fairly (yes, this still impresses me) and it means millions of viewers tuning in to see some of the wonderful films that might not otherwise have such a big audience.
The 2008 series launches on June 24 with Katrina Browne’s Traces of the Trade. Her film was a part of the IFP Market the year that I was there, and I am curious to see how it turned out. It follows Katrina and members of her family as they explore their family background in the slave trade. Titles and dates (All programs air Tuesdays at 10 p.m., unless otherwise indicated; check local listings.):
June 24 Traces of the Trade by Katrina Browne
July 1 Election Day by Katy Chevigny
July 8 The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández by Kieran Fitzgerald
July 15 The Last Conquistador by John J. Valadez and Cristina Ibarra
July 22 9 Star Hotel by Ido Haar
July 29 Campaign by Kazuhiro Soda
Aug. 5 Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music by Robert Elfstrom
Aug. 12 Belarusian Waltz by Andrzej Fidyk
Aug. 19 The Judge and the General by Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco
Aug. 26 Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball by Kenneth Eng (Encore)
Sept. 2 Lomax the Songhunter by Rogier Kappers (Encore)
Sept. 9 Freedom Machines by Jamie Stobie and Janet Cole (Encore)
Sept. 23 Calavera Highway by Renee Tajima-Pena and Evangeline Griego
Sept. 30 Critical Condition by Roger Weisberg (9 p.m. Special)
Oct. 7 In the Family by Joanna Rudnick
Oct. 14 Up the Yangtze by Yung Chang
Oct. 21 Soldiers of Conscience by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg
December (date TBA) Inheritance by James Moll (9 p.m. Special)
POV Blog, WGA and The Camden 28
Thanks to AJ for pointing out the POV blog; I remember some staffers telling me they were going to implement one, but sadly I never got an email about the launch. Some of my favorite doc folks are posting, including Simon Kilmurry. He posted a great response to David Poland who writes on The Hot Blog, about the WGA nominations for best documentary writing, “has anyone outside of the WGA seen the top doc vote-getter, The Camden 28?”Kilmurry’s response:
What Poland’s post raises, I believe, is the more problematic issue of equating box office success with the importance of a documentary—a crude measurement. Let’s get real here, the vast majority of docs have a very limited box office appeal. I can’t believe that other WGA nominees made millions at the box office—despite how much I might admire The Rape of Europa and the excellent No End In Sight. Most of them make little or no money. (As far as I’m aware, the WGA does not take box office in account in their awards, God bless them.) Read the whole article
I’ve been slow in reading and posting lately and part of that is being busy but part of it is also boredom with what people are writing about film. Awards are great because they raise awareness among new audiences about great films that they may not have seen - The Camden 28 is a great example of that. It’s a wonderful movie. It revisits a 1960s act of civil disobedience and asks the participants to relay those events, which they do. The film is conventional in style but it is so inspiring to see the story of people who were willing risk their own liberty to send a message to the government, as that doesn’t seem to be happening now, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the actions of our government… but I digress. The issue is that so many writing about film are only focusing on box office, and seemingly ignoring anything film-related that doesn’t have to do with theatrical release.
iW: Showing Movies, Making Change: P.O.V. at 20 Years
As film lovers, we tend to remember our significant film moments. One such moment for me was Elizabeth Barret’s “Stranger with a Camera.” In it, Barret revisits the 1967 murder of filmmaker Hugh O’Connor by a Kentucky local who was fed up with what he considered exploitation of people and poverty in his hometown. Barret, who grew up in Appalachia herself, uses her personal and regional history to explore the relationship between filmmaker and subject, with profound results. The story is at once personal to the filmmaker, and to me having grown up in West Virginia, while it also explores our nation’s collective ambivalence and fascination with poverty and relationship to media. My experience with the film steered me toward a career in media because, like the staff of P.O.V. which aired the film in 2000, I whole-heartedly believe that media has power to change the way that we think and influence our actions. Read the entire article>>
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